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Editorial: Testing Environments

As exams approach, students are stressed about how they will finish the semester. However, in addition to grades, students now have to worry about their testing locations and the effect they will play on their finals.

There are many classes and only so many days to take exams. The registrar does a good job of making sure every class is accommodated and that things run smoothly. They take so many courses and arrange them all in a way that seems almost unbelievable. Yet, the one problem that has occurred is that of fairness in exam location.

Many large classes are split up, and take exams at different locations. It is often unfair to a certain part of the class that is put in a worse area for an exam than the other section. Now this has nothing to do with students requiring extra time and such; they are a completely different situation. But when sections are divided into different areas and one has a room with desks while the other has small fold out tables, it hardly seems like a level playing field.

While we can accept that there are only so many places for students to take exams, places that are simply not appropriate for specific courses should never be used. It is incredibly hard to take a math exam with a calculator and papers on a small desk. It is also very difficult to take an exam in Taylor Gymnasium, which professors have even admitted is a horrible testing location. Why are locations such as this even used in the first place then?

Lehigh does such a good job at making sure students take exams at the same time to be as fair as possible, but administrators often overlook these unfair testing locations.

While we do not know how this problem could be solved, and we have no experience organizing exam periods, we hope at least something could be done to help students who have been, and will be, impacted by poor testing atmospheres. While students are worried enough about their exams, a testing location should not be another worry for them. We simply encourage Lehigh to look into this situation and maybe make things a little easier in this difficult time to be a college student.